New Ferrari 488 Pista: official video shows hardcore 488 in action on track

Following its public debut at the Geneva motor show, the Ferrari 488 Pista hits the track in a film showcasing the new supercar.

Ferrari has released a video featuring the 488 Pista in action at the Circuito de Almeria following the car’s full reveal at the 2018 Geneva motor show. While the short film from Ferrari offers little in the way of new information, a sequence of well executed slides and full-throttle blasts only adds to our anticipation as we wait to drive the 458 Speciale successor.

A pair of Ferrari 488 Challenge race cars open the video before splitting on the straight to make way for a Ferrari 488 Pista. The decision to feature the Challenge cars is clearly intended to highlight the technology transfer from Ferrari’s motorsport programme directly into the new 488 Pista.

Elsewhere in the video a few choreographed slow motion shots show the car’s motorsport-inspired aesthetic and finer visual details of the most powerful V8 Ferrari model in history. There’s also plenty of opportunity to see the car breaking traction with the smooth drifts possible performed with the aid of Ferrari’s new Side Slip Angle Control System (SSC 6.0). The system was pioneered for the Ferrari 458 Speciale to help initiate, maintain and arrest powerslides. According to Ferrari, the latest version of the technology in the 488 Pista ‘renders the car’s dynamic behaviour during complex manoeuvres even flatter and more stable.’

Later on, the official video provides the first chance to hear the Pista accelerating hard down a straight. Inhaling through its carbonfibre intake plenum and exhaling through new inconel exhaust manifolds, the 710bhp V8 has a sharper-edged motorsport note than the engine in the standard 488GTB.

Ferrari 488 technical details

There’s now a new name to be added to the golden lineage of Challenge Stradale, Scuderia and Speciale: that of ‘Pista’. This is the new Ferrari 488 Pista, following in the illustrious tyre tracks of its hardcore V8-powered predecessors, and due to make its debut at this year’s Geneva motor show.

Like those lightweight Ferrari specials before it, the 488 Pista takes inspiration from Ferrari’s current motorsport cars, namely the 488 GTE and the 488 Challenge. Keen to emphasise the credentials of the Pista, Ferrari points out that the GTE has taken 29 class victories in the past 50 WEC races and five championships, and that it has also now been running its one-make Challenge series for 25 years.

The Pista follows the time served pattern by offering more power to move less weight, and with further developments in electronics and aerodynamics. It is set to be the most powerful V8-engined Ferrari in the company’s history, with 710bhp at 8,000rpm from the turbocharged 3.9-litre engine and 568lb ft of torque at 3,000rpm - the latter figure quoted as being released in seventh gear due to the engine’s sophisticated torque mapping, which gives any 488 the sensation of being powered by a naturally aspirated powerplant. With an extra 49bhp over the 488 GTB, the 488 Pista boasts a larger increase in power over the standard car than any of the 360-, 430- and 458-based ‘specials’.

Performance figures are suitably sensational, with 0-62mph quoted as 2.9-seconds and 0-124mph as 7.6 - numbers that put it firmly into McLaren 720S territory. The top speed is said to be 211mph. Below we have built up a table showing the Ferrari's figures against its key rivals, and as you'll see the numbers are almost spookily similar when compared to the McLaren 720S, Lamborghini Huracan Performante and Porsche 911 GT2 RS.

As well as being more powerful than the standard GTB, the 488 Pista’s engine is lighter, too, thanks to the use of inconel exhaust manifolds and a lighter crankshaft and flywheel from the Challenge car, plus the use of titanium conrods and a carbonfibre intake plenum. The Pista’s torque output is higher at any engine speed than the GTB’s, and the response from the turbochargers is said to be even quicker.

Naturally, the Pista’s weight loss program extends to its body, where the engine cover, front and rear bumpers and the rear wing are made from carbonfibre. It’s also possible to order 20” wheels with a carbonfibre rim, and with all lightweight options specified the 488 Pista weighs a commendable 90kg less than a GTB coupe, tipping the scales at 1,280kg dry.

The first pictures of the car show a 488 strongly influenced by aerodynamic thinking. There’s an F1-inspired S-Duct at the front along with a diffuser similar to the GTE car, while the car’s underbody has been redesigned with new ‘vortex generators’. At the rear, the diffuser features a ‘double kink’ design again inspired by the GTE-spec racer. With its larger and higher-set ‘blown’ rear spoiler, and a front end dominated by a raised section that looks almost like a complete front wing mounted on the car, the 488 Pista offers a 20% increase in downforce over the 488 GTB.

Perhaps even more influential than its sophisticated aerodynamics is the Pista’s formidable arsenal of electronic systems, designed, as Ferrari puts it, to create a ‘completely symbiotic relationship’ between car and driver. The firm stresses how the 488 Pista can be enjoyed on the limit by any driver and not just a professional, but with 182bhp/litre from the V8 and immense cornering grip, it’s fair to say it has little choice but to incorporate technologies that help drivers with the necessary size of wallet to buy one, but not always such extensive driver skills to safely exploit such a car. It’s inevitably a sign of the times, and of the rapid increase in potency of cars in this niche over recent years.

Helping to make the ‘limits approachable’, according to Ferrari, is Version 6.0 of its Side Slip Angle Control System, or SSC 6.0. This suite of tech incorporates E-Diff3, F1-Trac, the latest adaptive dampers (SCM) and, for the first time, something called the Ferrari Dynamic Enhancer (FDE). Ferrari claims FDE is a world first, and describes it as ‘software that adjusts the brake pressure at the calipers’. All together, it’s a massive amount of computing power helping to make a 700bhp+ mid-engined car more friendly on the limit.

Time will tell whether the 488 Pista can live up to its forebears; not just great Ferraris, remember, but some of the finest driver’s cars ever built. But based on what we know so far, Ferrari clearly hasn’t held back in attempting to advance the genre further still.

Ferrari 488 Pista

McLaren 720S

Lamborghini Huracan Performante

Porsche 911 GT2 RS

I.C Engine

3.9-litre V8, twin-turbo

4-litre V8, twin-turbo

5.2-litre V10

3.8-litre flat-six twin-turbo

Total max power

710bhp @ 8000rpm

710bhp @ 7250rpm

631bhp @ 8000rpm

690bhp @ 7000rpm

Total max torque

568lb ft @ 3000rpm

568lb ft @ 5500rpm

443lb ft @ 6500rpm

553lb ft @ 2500-4500rpm

Transmission

7-speed dual-clutch

7-speed dual-clutch

7-speed dual-clutch

7-speed dual-clutch

Weight (dry)

1280kg

1283kg

1382kg

1470kg (DIN)

0-62mph

2.9 secs

2.8 secs

2.9 secs

2.8 secs

0-124mph

7.6 secs

7.8 secs

8.9 secs

8.3 secs

Top speed

211mph

212mph

201mph+

211mph

Base price

na

£208,000

£207,925

£207,506

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Comments

Submitted by Weberex on Thu, 2018-02-15 08:33.

The way it will drive? Spectacular. Likely it will feel great too and look suitably aggressive... I am just hoping that it sounds great. The only turbocharged engines I have enjoyed listening to are:

There is a rawness to these with genuine crackles pops and bangs on the overrun, notwithstanding fuel injections.

I hope Ferrari can achieve such a sound as special as that which came out from one of those above...

Submitted by ManyMotors on Wed, 2018-02-21 16:43.

Here, let me get the usual that is written here out of the way: it's ugly, it'll be too expensive, it doesn't have a gated shifter, it only has an 8,000 rpm redline, they haven't made a real car since Enzo died, blah, blah....

Ferrari, like them or not, is making some interesting cars and they are selling them. If you doubt that, look at their financials - they are profitable. The 488 Pista is only for a few yet can be appreciated by many. Ferrari, of course, isn't the only company making interesting cars. But they do entertain.

Submitted by John Smith on Wed, 2018-02-21 19:51.

Over to you Lamborghini. Apart from the rear end, wheels and roof it's not the best looking car I've seen.

Submitted by Zshawn Raoof on Wed, 2018-02-21 21:55.

Good god Ferrari really redeemed themselves with this; I completely forgot what a Lamborghini is after seeing this. The rear end is hyper aggressive and just outright beautiful. Love the wide stance and performance wheels.

I would love to spec one of these in black with the stripes in italian colors and bronze wheels.

Submitted by Jake Hession on Thu, 2018-02-22 00:46.

Oh my god, this is the most beautiful car I've seen in ages. The 488 GTB was my dream car until I saw this. I love the front end, with the big hole right in the middle.

White with black wheels and a red and blue stripe for me.

Submitted by Feed back on Thu, 2018-02-22 13:36.

I would love to see all those cars mentioned, in a straight up race to finish line. Could not pick a winner as there is absolutely nothing between all four of them

Submitted by Martin McMahon on Fri, 2018-02-23 17:44.

Will the even-harder-core version be called "Zafarte"?

Submitted by Martin McMahon on Fri, 2018-02-23 17:47.

Hmm. If you like the sound of fireworks, buy fireworks. I don't buy the idea that a car isn't any good unless it sounds like Thor after a vindaloo.

Submitted by Andys on Sat, 2018-02-24 17:15.

Pista top speed is 340kph= 211.2662mph and 0-62 mph is 2,85 secs

and 720s is 0-62 mph 2.9s and top speed 212 mph, why Evo has wrong data for both cars, Ferrari values round up and Laren down? ?

Due to the fact that the Coriolis force acting stronger as you're closer to the Equator, making wheels spinning slightly faster in Fiorano, the acceleration is 0,05s faster to 62mph. It's not without a reason that downwards Fiorano Strait is oriented South-Nord. Tests are performed during Summer when a strong Garbico wind pushes thinner air from the Sahara, making for the 0,2662 mph velocity difference. That's why the "Pista" name...

Submitted by Disqutech on Mon, 2018-02-26 09:13.

Ferrari LaMacca...?

Submitted by Weberex on Mon, 2018-02-26 14:22.

Ferrari has a tradition of making their engines expressive and I hope they haven't forgotten how great their old turbocharged units sounded.

As for those who prefer muted engines, feel free to settle for a Porche 911.

Submitted by Andys on Mon, 2018-02-26 14:25.

sure when they rise Ferrari up 0.5s and push Laren down by 1.0s , makes total Laren 1.5 secs faster and its quite amazing considering this is british mag, you have ate too much serials in the Corilios?

Submitted by Rexher on Thu, 2018-03-01 12:17.

You're right, I couldn't either, except that I could pick a loser : the Lamborghini. Although I love that car, it's a bit underpowered in this company, and as you can see, it struggles to keep up once the 0-62 is over. But then, again, there's the magic trick : the aero. And although none of the other are slouch on aero, maybe a bolognese miracle will happen ?